Scientific knowledge supports the conclusion that the contamination of the global environment with persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is causing significant damages to human health around the world. This knowledge serves as a basis for public educational outreach focusing upon POPs exposure minimization. In the 2010 World Health Organization report, âPersistent Organic Pollutants: Impact on Child Healthâ, the recommendation is made that health arena leaders take action to minimize the exposure that children receive to POPs.
On March 28, 2012, Cancer Action NY hosted a conference on the subject of POPs exposure minimization. David O. Carpenter, MD, Director of the State University of New York at Albany, Institute for Health and the Environment presented a brief overview of the WHO report named above. This presentation was followed by a discussion of strategies for accomplishing POPs exposure minimization. Much of the discussion centered upon motivating the United States government to take the steps necessary to insure that the corporations which used and disposed of PCBs are required to take further actions that would reduce the harm caused by their past actions. It was agreed that a joint effort should be made to educate the residents of the Akwesasne reserve on the subject of POPs exposure minimization. Akwesasne is downwind and downstream on the St. Lawrence River from industrial sites where PCBs were used and disposed of. Large quantities of PCBs continue to be present on these sites. Participants also decided to work together to conduct a second PCB Health Congress, the first of which was conducted in 2006 in Fairfield Connecticut the location of the global headquarters of the General Electric Corporation.
This conference gave voice to a common belief that corporations and failed government have polluted the Earth with dangerous chemical substances and that the time has come for accountability for the poisoning of many people who have been exposed to these chemicals. We are among the people who continue to move forward with their efforts to have good health and an uncontaminated environment. We are some of those who believe that corporations and government must be brought under the control of the people.
Cancer Action News Network, Donald L. Hassig, Producer
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